A liquid crystal panel included in a liquid crystal display apparatus is formed by using a glass substrate which is rectangular. The glass substrate has a metal film having translucency formed on one surface of the glass substrate.
Forming of the metal film on the glass substrate is performed by a film forming apparatus (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-262539, which is hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
The film forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1 includes a substrate holder part holding a glass substrate in a vertical position, and a carrier on which the substrate holder part is mounted. The film forming apparatus forms a metal film on one surface of the glass substrate by moving the carrier inside of a chamber while conveying the glass substrate along a prescribed path.
The substrate holder part described in Patent Document 1 includes a frame body which encloses peripheral edge parts of the glass substrate, and a plurality of placing parts (substrate receiving parts' in text thereof) on which a lower part of the glass substrate is placed. The plurality of placing parts are juxtaposed in a direction along the lower part of the glass substrate, and respectively protrude from the frame body.
The glass substrate in a vertical position may tend to be deformed into a convex shape in a downward direction due to a stress caused by its own weight, thermal expansion during film formation or the like. If a protruded length of each placing part from the frame body is constant, a large pressure occurs between the glass substrate which may tend to be deformed in the downward direction and the placing part on which the glass substrate is placed. As a result, the glass substrate may be broken.
However, the placing part described in Patent Document 1 has elasticity. Therefore, the placing part is elastically deformed in the downward direction along with the downward deformation of the glass substrate. Thereby, an occurrence of large pressure between the glass substrate and the placing part is suppressed.